medication abortion

Following the Thursday ruling by a Jackson County judge, Planned Parenthood in Kansas City began providing medication abortions to patients on Monday for the first time since 2018. But affiliates are still fighting limitations as critics again seek to restrict access via a ballot issue in November.

A Jackson County judge permanently struck down a slew of abortion restrictions, including a statute requiring what's known as a "complication plan" for medication abortions.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway was the lead Republican attorney general behind the letter, claiming "the upsurge in home-setting chemical abortions has serious implications for the Safe Drinking Water Act." Environmental experts say there is no such evidence.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 to let states decide how to manage abortion access. But Yvette Lindgren, a professor of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, says state bans aren’t resulting in fewer abortions.

The original bill would have allowed civil lawsuits against anyone involved in an unlawful abortion, including self-induced abortions

Although Missouri voters restored abortion rights in 2024, multiple legal, political and court battles over the common abortion medication mifepristone continue to run through the state. Hawley is taking aim at the drug through proposed legislation and calling for federal investigations.

Hours after Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a bill aimed at protecting crisis pregnancy centers, Republican lawmakers reversed the veto, citing a desire to preserve life in the state.

The Missouri senator claims the drug puts patients at risk, while advocates say decades of data back up mifepristone's safety.

Mifepristone is facing another major legal challenge. The NPR Network wants to hear from people who've been prescribed the medication about their experiences.

The legislation threatens the death penalty if doctors don't provide life-saving care to babies born after an attempted abortion. It also opens the door for lawsuits against people who help someone access abortion medication.

Missouri Planned Parenthood clinics can currently perform procedural abortions but state laws limit the scope of care, and medication abortion is blocked. A trial in Jackson County could clarify which state-imposed standards abortion providers must meet.

State attorneys will take center stage this week in a trial that could reshape Missouri's abortion regulations. Witnesses are expected to include doctors who view the state's TRAP laws as protective, rather than restrictive. This follows a week where Planned Parenthood leaders testified that the state is imposing standards that are impossible to meet.